Apr 2 2012
The Wall Street Journal offers tips on how to preserve some assets while attempting to qualify for Medicaid assistance.
The Wall Street Journal: Medicaid Gets Harder To Tap
Families hoping to use Medicaid to help pay for long-term care are facing tougher restrictions - though some states are getting stricter than others. ... Here's how to preserve some assets and possibly still qualify for help (Greene, 3/30).
Also in the news, Politico Pro reports on how what some view as a simple change that could save Medicaid big money.
Politico Pro: Groups, Medicaid Work To End Early Births
Turns out there's one deceptively simple change in obstetric care that can save millions of dollars and lead to healthier babies and healthier moms: stopping women and their obstetricians from inducing births before 39 weeks without a pressing medical reason. That could be a tough sell, though - because early induction has become part of the culture. About one in 10 births in the United States is intentionally early, and some estimates are higher. It's a matter of choice and convenience, sometimes of efficiency, for both women and their doctors. A baby born at 38 weeks - a common time for early induction - isn't premature. It sounds safe. But mounting evidence shows these planned early births put babies at risk - more infants staying in neonatal intensive care units, more complications, more permanent damage and a higher death rate (Kenen, 4/2).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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